Double Stroller on Eastern Med Cruise

[volinder]

Hi Everyone,

 

I did a search and found some answers to my questions, however with new strollers available and families likely having done the Eastern Med cruise recently I figured i would post a question about double strollers on here.

 

We are planning on doing guided tours in Rome, Athens, Kusadasi and a lot of walking around at other ports. My kids are 3 and 5 and because of the amount of time we plan on walking, we just feel more comfortable to keep a stroller with us.

 

My first question, do the side by side double strollers fit through doorways, cruise ship etc? How are they in the older cities?

 

Secondly, how easy is it to take the strollers on tours and are the walking paths easy to navigate a stroller around?

 

 

Lastly, would it be worth thinking of taking 2 individual umbrella strollers or a double side by side? Any suggestions for strollers are greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

Volinder

[Kerry's Girls]

I did that exact cruise with a MacLaren side-by-side. Lightweight and fairly narrow for a side-by-side, pretty good on cobblestones, folds easy with a carry strap when needed. That said, it may be hassle t if you're trying to do group tours (though there is NO way I'd do group tours with kids). In each of those cities we arranged private tours and it was a spectacular way to go, and often less expensive than paying for four of us to be tortured on a large bus group tour. The major benefit was being able to easily take or leave the stroller depending on what site we were stopped at.

 

In Rome, we planned to walk to the train station to get into the city and then do the Hop On/Hop Off bus, which would have been great, but we negotiated with a taxi driver in port who gave us a tour instead. Do NOT take a stroller into the Vatican - turns out it wasn't built for strollers and is pretty miserable trying to carry it and deal with kids going up and down narrow stairs in a crowd. I'm usually pro taking my kids anywhere, but at 5, they didn't enjoy the Vatican. It was much better when we returned a few years later.

 

Ephesus is very kid friendly and fun and by taking a private tour, we were ahead of the large bus tours all day. We requested a guide who was good with kids and it started at the top of the hill so was all downhill walking and the van met us at the bottom. That's the other nice thing about private tours - when you're done, you get to leave, not have the endless wait for everyone to get back on the bus.

 

In Athens we hired a taxi driver at the port for the day, which again let us beat the large bus tours to the Acropolis and gave us a place to keep the stroller until we used it to have lunch in the old town.

 

Have a great time - that was one of my all-time favorite trips.

 

Best,

Mia

[lucyddr]

You might want to look at Zoe Deluxe double strollers. They are only 16lbs each and seem ideal for travel! I'm buying one before our cruise in September as our Bumbleride Indie Twin is just too big.

[volinder]

I did that exact cruise with a MacLaren side-by-side. Lightweight and fairly narrow for a side-by-side' date=' pretty good on cobblestones, folds easy with a carry strap when needed. That said, it may be hassle t if you're trying to do group tours (though there is NO way I'd do group tours with kids). In each of those cities we arranged private tours and it was a spectacular way to go, and often less expensive than paying for four of us to be tortured on a large bus group tour. The major benefit was being able to easily take or leave the stroller depending on what site we were stopped at.

 

In Rome, we planned to walk to the train station to get into the city and then do the Hop On/Hop Off bus, which would have been great, but we negotiated with a taxi driver in port who gave us a tour instead. Do NOT take a stroller into the Vatican - turns out it wasn't built for strollers and is pretty miserable trying to carry it and deal with kids going up and down narrow stairs in a crowd. I'm usually pro taking my kids anywhere, but at 5, they didn't enjoy the Vatican. It was much better when we returned a few years later.

 

Ephesus is very kid friendly and fun and by taking a private tour, we were ahead of the large bus tours all day. We requested a guide who was good with kids and it started at the top of the hill so was all downhill walking and the van met us at the bottom. That's the other nice thing about private tours - when you're done, you get to leave, not have the endless wait for everyone to get back on the bus.

 

In Athens we hired a taxi driver at the port for the day, which again let us beat the large bus tours to the Acropolis and gave us a place to keep the stroller until we used it to have lunch in the old town.

 

Have a great time - that was one of my all-time favorite trips.

 

Best,

Mia[/quote']

 

Thank you kindly for the help.

[gluecksbaer]

If you are considering umbrella strollers then one option is buying stroller links to attach them together as a double. This does make an extra wide stroller that will not fit well most places on the ship or through many doorways. So it's not a great double stroller option. But it is nice if you are primarily using single umbrella strollers to have the option to link them so just one person can push. (Also, the umbrella strollers must be the same model for the links to work right.)

[annamh]

Hi' just got back from a cruise on independence of the seas a today with a 4&3 year old. We decided not to take our double, and took our side and buggy board, worked perfectly, the double we have is only as wide as a wheelchair but I still think it would have been difficult on the ship on in the gangways etc. We left our single parked outside our room at night too with no issues, which gave us more space in the room and saved having to fold it up each time x

 

 

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[Ashland]

Hi' just got back from a cruise on independence of the seas a today with a 4&3 year old. We decided not to take our double, and took our side and buggy board, worked perfectly, the double we have is only as wide as a wheelchair but I still think it would have been difficult on the ship on in the gangways etc. We left our single parked outside our room at night too with no issues, which gave us more space in the room and saved having to fold it up each time x

 

 

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Glad it worked for you...however...very surprised you were able to leave it in the hallway at night...hallways are so narrow and usually this can create a fire hazard and isn't allowed...just as wheel chairs and scooter's aren't either.